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04313aam a2200481 i 4500 001 0A3374C80CF611EA99B9112E97128E48 003 SILO 005 20191122010114 008 170808t20182018vauabf b s001 0beng 010 $a 2017030696 020 $a 0813941040 020 $a 9780813941042 035 $a (OCoLC)1010986280 040 $a DLC $b eng $e rda $c DLC $d OCLCO $d BDX $d VA@ $d FM0 $d PFLCL $d YDX $d OCLCO $d OCLCQ $d OCLCO $d UIU $d WLU $d UtOrBLW $d SILO 042 $a pcc 043 $a n-us--- $0 http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/geographicAreas/n-us 050 00 $a GV1545.P65 $b H63 2018 066 $c Zsym 082 00 $a B $a B $2 23 100 1 $a Hodgson, John A., $d 1945- $e author. $0 http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79137915 245 10 $a Richard Potter : $b America's first Black celebrity / $c John A. Hodgson. 264 1 $a Charlottesville : $b University of Virginia Press, $c 2018. 300 $a xx, 318 pages, 10 unnumbered pages of plates : $b illustrations, map ; $c 25 cm 504 $a Includes bibliographical references (pages 253-308) and index. 505 0 $a Introduction -- The Hopkinton years, 1783-1795 -- The Boston years and Europe, 1795-1803 -- The apprentice years and early career, 1804-1815 -- Ascent to fame, 1815-1819 -- The grand North American tour, 1819-1823 -- Return to New England, 1824-1829 -- A New England icon, a broken family, 1829-1835 -- Afterword: hiding in plain sight. 520 $a Apart from a handful of exotic--and almost completely unreliable--tales surrounding his life, Richard Potter is almost unknown today. Two hundred years ago, however, he was the most popular entertainer in America--the first showman, in fact, to win truly nationwide fame. Working as a magician and ventriloquist, he personified for an entire generation what a popular performer was and made an invaluable contribution to establishing popular entertainment as a major part of American life. His story is all the more remarkable in that Richard Potter was also a black man. This was an era when few African Americans became highly successful, much less famous. As the son of a slave, Potter was fortunate to have opportunities at all. At home in Boston, he was widely recognized as black, but elsewhere in America audiences entertained themselves with romantic speculations about his "Hindu" ancestry (a perception encouraged by his act and costumes). Richard Potter's performances were enjoyed by an enormous public, but his life off stage has always remained hidden and unknown. Now, for the first time, John A. Hodgson tells the remarkable, compelling--and ultimately heartbreaking--story of Potter's life, a tale of professional success and celebrity counterbalanced by racial vulnerability in an increasingly hostile world. It is a story of race relations, too, and of remarkable, highly influential black gentlemanliness and respectability: as the unsung precursor of Frederick Douglass, Richard Potter demonstrated to an entire generation of Americans that a black man, no less than a white man, could exemplify the best qualities of humanity. The apparently trivial "popular entertainment" status of his work has long blinded historians to his significance and even to his presence. Now at last we can recognize him as a seminal figure in American history. 600 10 $a Potter, Richard, $d 1783-1835. $0 http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n2017047565 600 14 $a Potter, Richard $b 1783-1835. 650 0 $a Magicians $z United States $v Biography. $0 http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh2008107188 650 0 $a African American magicians $v Biography. 650 0 $a African American entertainers $v Biography. 650 0 $a Entertainers $z United States $v Biography. $0 http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh2008102847 650 0 $a Ventriloquists $z United States $v Biography. 650 1 $a Magicians $z United States $v Biography. 650 4 $a African American magicians $z United States. 650 4 $a African American magicians $x Biography. 650 4 $a Ventriloquists $z United States. 650 4 $a African American entertainers. 655 7 $a Biographies. $2 lcgft $0 http://id.loc.gov/authorities/genreForms/gf2014026049 880 4 $6 264-00 $c �2018 941 $a 1 952 $l OVUX522 $d 20191217020801.0 956 $a http://locator.silo.lib.ia.us/search.cgi?index_0=id&term_0=0A3374C80CF611EA99B9112E97128E48Initiate Another SILO Locator Search